In
another thread Skip Webb made some rather damning admissions. I think it will be worthwhile to review them. He has freely admitted that:
(1) It is easy to beat the PCASS; and
(2) It is reasonable to suppose that the people the PCASS is supposed to detect know how to beat it.
I agree with both of the points that he has made and I thank him for making them. Of course, neither Skip nor I would say it can be beaten 100% of the time, even by a very well-trained person. But as Skip has pointed out, even people without much education can learn to foil the device fairly easily and without any formal training.
But this uncharacteristic love fest between Skip and I is at an end, because I disagree with him on his third point, which is as follows:
(3) Even though the PCASS can be easily beaten and those who it was designed to detect probably know how to beat it, the device should still be used.
Think about that for a moment. He has admitted that the device can be compromised and that the people whose deception it exists to detect probably know how to defeat it. But we should still use it anyway. That is like using a code that you know they enemy has cracked and complaining that they shouldn't have been able to figure it out. Or it's like giving people HIV tainted blood and insisting that it's the fault of the AIDS sufferers who donated the blood. The fact is, Mr. Webb wants U.S. military personnel to use a system that he
knows cannot usefully detect deception to do just that. That's wrong, folks. Would we send them into battle with rifles that jammed 35% of the time and then condemn the whistle blower who warned them that their firearms are faulty? Webb would!
Now, there are, logically, two possibilities--and only two.
First, it is possible that Mr. Webb doesn't realize how untenable his position is. This would not be as surprising as one would normally think, since thinking critically is not a skill highly valued among polygraphers (indeed, it is as discouraged as chastity in a brothel). If this is the case, Mr. Webb is a dunce and we need not put any weight in anything he says. Pity him.
The second--and only other--possibility is that Mr. Webb realizes that his position is untenable but promotes it anyway. If this is the case, Mr. Webb is an evil man; he is putting brave men and women of our nation's armed forces in far more harm than they should be. That's pretty damned evil where I come from.
I won't prejudice the matter by giving my opinion on whether Mr. Webb is stupid or evil; instead, I'll piss him off further by saying you can examine the evidence and make up your own mind about it.
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Skip Webb admits PCASS is easy to beat (Read 7828 times)
